Girl athlete harassed, attacked by miscreants

Five youths allegedly harassed, attacked and injured a state level girl athlete at Saharanpur on Wednesday.

Sources say, the incident occurred when the girl was practising for a cross-country race scheduled for July 27.

The youths who were in a car, passed objectionable comments on her and when she opposed them, they caught hold of her and dragged her some distance along with their car. The coach and other athletes admitted the girl to the district hospital from where she was shifted to a private hospital.

Police have lodged an FIR against the youths on the basis of the complaint of coach Sandeep Kumar. Three have been arrested while two are still absconding. Those nabbed have been identified as Savej, Indrajeet and Varun while the other two are Deepak Gujar and Jeetu. All the accused are aged between 20 and 25.

Sources say Kumar chased the miscreants and caught hold of one of them while four others managed to escape in their car.

The captured youth divulged the identity of his aides and the squad of athletes along with their coach caught hold of two more molesters from different locations of the town and handed them over to the police. Two others are, however, still at large and police teams have been dispatched to arrest them.

“We have arrested three accused while raids are underway to arrest remaining two accused who have already been identified,” said SSP Vijay Yadav while terming the incident as unfortunate.

The girl belongs to Beenpur village of Gangoh area in the district. She won championships at district and division level and brought laurels to the district by bagging a silver medal in the state level inter-school championship.

She was preparing to participate in a national level cross-country race under the guidance of her coach Sandeep Kumar.